On Tony Stewart and Kevin Ward Jr., everyone's an expert and no one's an expert

A tragedy worsened by an avalanche of inanity.

Tony Stewart is a cold-blooded killer. I know this fact to be true because I've read it from a tidal wave of self-appointed experts on the Internet. Stewart's also partially at fault and completely innocent, according to other soothsayers.

Stepping away from the absurd for a moment, when did we, as a country, allow ourselves to believe that having an opinion is more important than anything that opinion may contain? I've read everything from full columns by veteran reporters to article comments to simple forum banter since late Saturday night when Kevin Ward Jr. was killed. And for all but a very few of those items, the biased, I-thought-it-then-I said-it rhetoric has been suffocating.

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The sad circumstances that led Ward Jr. lose his life – and Stewart to be thrust into the national spotlight for all the wrong reasons – has followed an all too familiar path where humility is scarce and self-censoring is an afterthought. Like a nation of attention addicts, the compulsive need to hit 'Send' on 140 characters of baseless inanity has been too powerful to ignore.

Somehow, we find ourselves where too many of us – at all times, and despite a lack of knowledge or training – feel obligated to share an opinion, play the role of crime scene investigator, detective, analyst and expert witness. And it happens without the faintest thought as to whether pushing away from the keyboard might be the boldest and wisest move to make.

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Giving in to those impulses has generated plenty of traffic and revenue for those who trade in bias and speculation, but if we're honest, has the majority of it been anything other than ignorance and vanity on display? And what has spawned our collective need to spew ill-formed thoughts upon anyone who'll listen?

Is it because we have 27 different versions of the "CSI" franchise? Do we feel obligated to put those hours of TV-based expertise to use in our own virtual accident reconstructions?

Do we blame procedural detective and legal shows like "Criminal Minds," "Suits," and all the "Law & Order" offshoots? Did they unknowingly build a nation of people with such vast knowledge about law and order that viewers are sufficiently equipped to weigh the merits of the case on-line in mock, impromptu trials?

My guess is it's all down to "The Mentalist." It would appear enough people have watched the show to now divine Stewart's true intentions and speak for whatever he was or was not trying to do when the exposed silhouette of Kevin Ward Jr. drew near.

And to my surprise, we've become so finely attuned to the inner thoughts of Tony Stewart, some of us can actually go back to Saturday night and read what was going through Stewart's mind as he approached Ward Jr.

As evidenced by all I've read in the past few days, it would be easy to assume our enlightenment as a species is reaching Biblical proportions, but in reality, only Stewart knows what he saw, what he was thinking, and what he intended.

We can hope there was no intent on Stewart's part, but we don't know. Despite this, and even though only one person on the planet can say what took place with complete authority, a mile-high pile of apologists, preachers and executioners continue to make their voices heard.

We've become the belligerent guy who can't wait for the end of the sentence to break in and vomit whatever must-be-heard-now thought dances across our frontal lobe. Sadly, I'm not sure this loss of self-restraint is something we should be proud of.

The Kevin Ward Jr./Tony Stewart online contretemps isn't the first or last of its kind, and in these instances, I'm often taken back to the wisdom shared by a girlfriend in the 1990s.

She was intelligent, contemplative and stunningly beautiful—virtues I was wholly unprepared to handle in my 20s. I was raised in an environment where rapid-fire conversation and debate was the norm, yet her quiet, introspective ways connected with a newfound insecurity that took root inside of me. Looking to fill the awkward silence that fell over us on a routine basis with small talk, she stopped me mid-sentence one night and dropped a lovely gem in my lap: "You don't have to say anything," she declared. "It's OK to just sit here and be quiet."

As I learned, the silences weren't awkward for her. She was at peace when we had nothing of importance to share, yet became uncomfortable at my attempts to disturb the peace – our peace – with my mindless ramblings. Ophelia's lesson still resonates with me today, and I wonder if her advice would be a perfect remedy for all those with opinions who aren't Tony Stewart, weren't Kevin Ward Jr., and certainly weren't standing in their places at Canandaigua Motorsports Park.

For those who just can't help themselves from being seen as the foremost experts on all that took place, can't sleep without defending or vilifying Stewart, or feel compelled to support or blame Ward Jr., I'll borrow Ophelia's words and suggest: You don't have to say anything. It's OK to sit there and be quiet.

Marshall Pruett is a Road & Track contributor and a full-time member of the RACER Magazine staff. This editorial originally appeared at RACER.com.